It was a rainy night and I just finished helping my friend in a video shoot for a project this end of August when my good friend Irene and I decided to chill first before going home. The streets of Dapitan in UST are filled with people always. People of all sorts from students to vendors and of course, beggars. It’s very usual for one to be tapped on the shoulder by a street child and beg for coins or left-overs from the food that one is holding. One time, while Irene is feeding me with her daily dose of stories, one kid came up to us and of course begged for some coins. We ignored him and Irene continued chatting but this kid would not stop. He was making hand gestures that we cannot understand and it caught our attention.

“Kung di niyo po ako bibigyan, like niyo na lang po page ko sa Facebook.” (If you will not give me any, just like my Facebook page.) He said to us.

We were puzzled and I glanced at him from head to toe.

“Aba may Facebook page ka pa! Alam mo, hindi ka mukhang pulubi! Mas mukha pa nga kong pulubi sayo eh! San ka ba galing? Nasaan mga magulang mo?” (And you even have a Facebook page! You know, you do not look like a beggar! I even look like one compared to you.) I asked him out of curiosity. 

“Kung magiging madumi ako, hindi ako lalapitan ng mga tao o lalayuan nila ako. Hindi ako makakahingi. Kailangang presentable lagi.” (If I would be dirty, no one would approach me or people might run away from me. I wouldn’t be able to beg. I should always be presentable.) His answer started to wonder me a lot and the conversation with this kid lasted the whole night long. I even forgot that I should be going home by that time or I will miss the train.

• We found out that he manages the computer shop of his friend every Saturdays and that he was able to make his pages on Facebook. 
• He is a very witty kid. He attracts people by telling jokes to them. He was able to study through begging. 
• Due to his consistent hardwork, a lot of people has been sponsoring their family with shelter and education. He lives to beg and to help his siblings since their mother already died and their father lives and Tondo and do not care about them anymore. 
• I found out that he just lives near our home and he still travel all the way to Manila using the bicycle which is a very tiring thing to do. 
• He studied for free in a school for the deaf just because he wants to learn how to do sign language and it explained the weird hand gesture that he did earlier.

I was impressed with this kid’s story that we ended up giving him all our coins. Something that might help him for that night’s begging that he got. He is so much blessed with people who sees his perseverance and depiction of real essence of simple living and being happy.

Like his page here and his jokes compilation here and add him here.

Another interesting person that caught my attention is this leaf musician. I do not know how to call him but he resembles the great Filipino Artist who popularized playing music on a leaf, Levi Celerio. He was able to entertain us with his good music and high energy. he was old but his presence feels young. He played modern music and shout “yeah!” always which is funny and alluring. He did not beg for money to us which is unusual because I thought that he did such in exchange for alms. I saw him before on the other side of our school two years ago and glad to see him again.

I was amazed with these types of people who not only ask for simple contributions from us but gives us something in return which is inspiration and hope. We disregard these people since we just see them everyday or that they are none of our concern but they just manifest the need for our help and attention. If we just give them ample focus, sooner or later, no body in the streets have to do such just to live by for the day. They are the unsung heroes of our time.